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There’s been further good news for Sharks coach John Plumtree ahead of Saturday’s Currie Cup clash in Johannesburg, with lock forward Steven Sykes cleared to return to the side after two weeks out with a rib injury.

Whether the coach opts to push Sykes’s button, though, is another matter altogether. Understudy Jandre Marais has stepped up well in in the big second-rower’s absence and with Sykes having already announced his intention to depart for Port Elizabeth at the end of the current season, there must be a big temptation for the Sharks’ mentor to rather focus on the players that he’ll have available next year and to allow them to develop further in the Currie Cup.

The bit that’s really getting Plum’s goat, though, is SARU’s somewhat strange decision to keep Pat Lambie in cotton wool this weekend, when any fool can tell that the Sharks flyhalf is desperately in need of game time. According to SAPA, Plumtree pointed out the blatantly obvious in saying, “I think Pat Lambie is pretty desperate for some game time. It is a little bit frustrating but those are their (Springbok management) decisions.”

Lambie’s last full game of rugby was the Super Rugby final some months back; since then, his involvement with the Springboks has been limited to two bench appearances in the Rugby championship, totalling less than half an hour in total.

20 Comments

Meyer is screwing Lambie up, he knows he is a great player and better than Steyn, but doesn’t want to give him game time so that when Lambie does get game time and is rusty Meyer can say “Look he is not all that great, Steyn is our only option”

Comment 1, posted at 19.09.12 08:38:46 by Mutley

TBH, I think Lambie should just go do a FS , and go play in France for a few years.

Comment 2, posted at 19.09.12 08:46:33 by Uli

So it looks like an underdone Lambie will start for the Boks next weekend.

So many of us are very unhappy about Lambie not playing – It is shocking that he has been totally ignored by Meyer – if we complain and blog enough, will Meyer eventually see the light ? How is it even possible that Lambie, so highly rated by amongst others Naas Botha, is IGNORED by Meyer ???? I cannot understand this ! Isn’t there anybody in SA Rugby who has the guts to intervene ??

Comment 4, posted at 19.09.12 09:40:54 by swan

My team for this weekend-

I exclude Sykes just because it is best to give Peet as much gametime as we can now before Superugby next year.

Always great to see what amazing depth The Sharks have, they can name a team this weekend that’s on Par with a top 6 superugby team, if not better. Good to see.

Comment 7, posted at 19.09.12 10:08:32 by JJR

@Franshark (Comment 6) : Saw he trained yesterday, face looks fine and concussion won’t keep one out for more than 10 days in the rugby world, he should be fine…i hope! That fast Ellis park pitch will suit Jordaan perfectly…along with Whitehead they could cut the Lions to pieces.

It seems that south africa keeps their trend of breaking great players. We did it to Pienaar, Russell, Frans with their versatility and now lambie. The only way the came right was going overseas and being backed in 1 position. We baby our players too much and opt for versatility instead of specialist. Jack of all trades master of none. All these guys mentioned are brilliant in their established positions.

Comment 12, posted at 19.09.12 10:51:09 by Dunx

@Dunx (Comment 12) : Same thing with Daniel Adongo being shifted around the pack and even playing wing!

I saw him playing ITM Cup over the weekend and wow but he was good!! He was playing lock and was getting around the park like a loosie. He hit rucks like it was going out of fashion, tackled well and also had a few strong runs. Very impressive!